Somalia

Communications Analyst, Mariko Hall, was in Nairobi recently as part of the flood of humanitarian workers arriving in the Horn of Africa to help with the hunger crisis. She was with WFP's crack emergency telecoms team FITTEST, which is always brought in to get vital communications systems in place fast. Sitting in a guest house where there's no power, she explains some of the challenges of setting up a COMCEN (Communications Centre) in emergency environments.

Hawa Aden fled to central Somalia from the drought and conflict-torn south desperate for a way to support her family. Though work is scarce and settling in has been tough, she’s at least found a way to put food on the table. In exchange for monthly rations, Hawa helps to clean up the area where families like hers have settled—an important job that will help to prevent the spread of disease.

Nadifa and her family were nomads. Their thriving business, selling milk and meat from the herds of goats, was decimated by the drought in Somalia. They have sought refuge in the village of Docol in central Somalia, where they are now receiving WFP food assistance.

Like so much of Somalia, the city of Galkayo is divided between competing factions that each controls part of the city. WFP telecoms experts Ryan Twittey and Aleksandar Dulovic, who were recently there on assignment, describe the tense border crossing necessary to get from one part of the city to the other.

Somalia is one of the toughest places to work for a humanitarian worker. Security considerations affect everything – even getting an email system set up. Amos Mwea describes the challenges he faces installing a satellite dish at Mogadishu’s seaport.

Fatia and Halima are a pair of young mothers who struggle to find enough food for their families in the alleys of Modagishu. They’re fighting to protect their children from malnutrition, a battle they stand a good chance of winning with help from a special food product called Plumpy’Sup.

The UN focused its attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa on Saturday, with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warning that the “crisis grows deeper by the day”. Looking for long-term solutions at a mini-summit, he cited programs in Ethiopia and Kenya which showed how "drought need not become famine"

Back in July, Sadak Hassan Abdi, aged 18 months, was acutely malnourished and his mother was afraid he would die. But a combination of hospital treatment and special food from WFP has restored him to health and provided a striking illustration of how the right action can be critical in the Horn of Africa.

WFP recently held a live "tweetup" on the hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa featurning five staff members in the field who answered questions from the public on the popular microblogging site, Twitter. Here are some of the highlights from the event.